If your still playing gms, ems or what ever check out http://www.xtremetop100.com/maplestory for private servers. In my honest opinion it is better than the normal ones. there are less people, so more training space, and because there is less people it is easier to get to know the community better. =D

I reccomend: sydney ms and winterms
I havn't tried them but reading their descriptions they seem quite good. I know the sydney ms has nx slimes, when you kill they you get nx and in most private servers you can't do PQs (yeh you can't) but in this one there is CUSTION PQS which I think means that you can do pqs no matter what lvl you are, and you can probly try to solo it . In winter story everything is 1meso I'm not sure weather the nx is 1meso either, another reason for winterstory is it's v6.2. It is the highest version i've seen yet.
My main private story was v5.5 ( when I said was, I ment that it has closed) it was shut down because of finacial reasons, but they are sorted I'm not sure weather it is comming back.

Aha..if you never knew..Private Servers are actually illegal >.<"
Here's some proof...
"The Truth About Private Servers" http://maplestory.nexon.net/WZ.ASPX?PART=/News/View&boardNo=101&contentNo=004ZM&pageIndex=1

"Over the past few months, Nexon has taken many actions to enforce its rights against private servers. For the community to understand what this means, we'll briefly explain our position and why action is taken.

Private servers- it doesn't matter what game it is; it doesn't matter what the justifications is; the bottom line is that all private servers are illegal. The content that appears on Nexon's website and in its games are Nexon's protected intellectual property. Intellectual property rights are defined as legal property rights, both artistic and commercial, in tangible form (as opposed to ideas). It is recognized by the laws of all the countries in the world and there are severe penalties for those who violate those rights, whether through expensive statutory fines or criminal jail time. The use of intellectual material such as Nexon's requires the permission and authorization from its owner. Using unauthorized intellectual property for personal gain without permission is both illegal and actionable.

The major issue with private servers is that they bypass the creative process of designers and developers. They make copies of the original game by using the creative assets of which they have no legal right to use. Please know that intellectual property has more than a monetary value; private server creators violate the intellectual property rights on games by using it for their own personal interest. It is for this reason that we take legal action against any and all private servers running Nexon games. There is no such thing as a Nexon-approved private server.

Another danger private servers pose concerns the security of information. When you register to play on a private server, you are blindly surrendering your personal information to non-professionals who have no legal obligation to keep your personal information secure. There is no telling what they can do with your personal information!

We have heard some claims that private servers don't make money or ask for donations (some do), it is technically not illegal. This is incorrect. First of all, collecting donations does not automatically make a website a charity or a non-profit organization. To become a charity or have non-profit status, strict guidelines must be followed and government approval needs to be met. We doubt any of the private server sites would fall under those guideline. Therefore, a private server website accepting donations would still be classified as a commercial endeavor which is performing illegal activities. Nobody is fooled by the "donation" scam.

You may have criticism towards Nexon's games that you feel are addressed in private servers. Keep in mind that we are continuing to try to improve our games on a daily basis, which is challenging since we are on a large scale in regards to a player base. It may not be too difficult keeping 5, 20 or maybe even a 100 players happy, but we cater to the thousands that log onto our servers daily, and the millions that play our games worldwide.

We will continue to pursue any and every action necessary, whether legal or otherwise, to stop those who continue to illegally use our intellectual property. If you are currently running an unauthorized server, we advise you to discontinue your service immediately.

Yes, yes, we all knew that private servers are illegal. But I have not the time to invest into Global MS. I only have about 1 hour or so to play game each day. It'll take years for me to achieve higher levels in GMS . That's why I resort to private servers

Aha..if you never knew..Private Servers are actually illegal >.<"
Here's some proof...
"The Truth About Private Servers" http://maplestory.nexon.net/WZ.ASPX?PART=/News/View&boardNo=101&contentNo=004ZM&pageIndex=1

"Over the past few months, Nexon has taken many actions to enforce its rights against private servers. For the community to understand what this means, we'll briefly explain our position and why action is taken.

Private servers- it doesn't matter what game it is; it doesn't matter what the justifications is; the bottom line is that all private servers are illegal. The content that appears on Nexon's website and in its games are Nexon's protected intellectual property. Intellectual property rights are defined as legal property rights, both artistic and commercial, in tangible form (as opposed to ideas). It is recognized by the laws of all the countries in the world and there are severe penalties for those who violate those rights, whether through expensive statutory fines or criminal jail time. The use of intellectual material such as Nexon's requires the permission and authorization from its owner. Using unauthorized intellectual property for personal gain without permission is both illegal and actionable.

The major issue with private servers is that they bypass the creative process of designers and developers. They make copies of the original game by using the creative assets of which they have no legal right to use. Please know that intellectual property has more than a monetary value; private server creators violate the intellectual property rights on games by using it for their own personal interest. It is for this reason that we take legal action against any and all private servers running Nexon games. There is no such thing as a Nexon-approved private server.

Another danger private servers pose concerns the security of information. When you register to play on a private server, you are blindly surrendering your personal information to non-professionals who have no legal obligation to keep your personal information secure. There is no telling what they can do with your personal information!

We have heard some claims that private servers don't make money or ask for donations (some do), it is technically not illegal. This is incorrect. First of all, collecting donations does not automatically make a website a charity or a non-profit organization. To become a charity or have non-profit status, strict guidelines must be followed and government approval needs to be met. We doubt any of the private server sites would fall under those guideline. Therefore, a private server website accepting donations would still be classified as a commercial endeavor which is performing illegal activities. Nobody is fooled by the "donation" scam.

You may have criticism towards Nexon's games that you feel are addressed in private servers. Keep in mind that we are continuing to try to improve our games on a daily basis, which is challenging since we are on a large scale in regards to a player base. It may not be too difficult keeping 5, 20 or maybe even a 100 players happy, but we cater to the thousands that log onto our servers daily, and the millions that play our games worldwide.

We will continue to pursue any and every action necessary, whether legal or otherwise, to stop those who continue to illegally use our intellectual property. If you are currently running an unauthorized server, we advise you to discontinue your service immediately.

The only reason i play private servers is mostly because of the relatively small community... Its like one week of continuous smega-ing and everyone knows you... And that makes it alot funner in my opinion.. =/

Private servers are okay. I've played them before when I quit maple about 2 years ago since gms was hard at the time. At the end I kinda realized that there's no point in pservers. Yeah it's smaller, fun, and way easier to level from like lvl 1-50 in 5 minutes, free cash shop, mesos, gm hats, events, or whatever else, but they're illegal so the characters you make and all the progress isn't permanent, and some servers lag, like real bad. So in a month or two, I let it go.

A few months ago, I went back to play gms, and it's not so bad anymore. Leveling is way faster and easier with all these new pqs and the new exp rate. Just join one of the new servers on gms and they won't be crowded. Then make your own guild and you'll make friends, ect.

Private servers are illegal, and by no means do I support them, but even if they didn't exist, the official server likely would not get any more new players due to the age range of the players and the money availability of the players themselves. But as Lednay said, the progress and characters you make on an illegal server can be erased the next day, and the server could disappear without a trace; you would be left with nothing.

Besides, if you truly can afford to play on the official servers, the money you give will go back into game development, if not for Maple Story, then for the next game to come. In the end you're cutting yourself short really.

Them peoples saying they're illegial and shouldn't be done are weird to me. Iunno why.
Private Server's ARE okay, their communities vary nicely, and aren't full of stupidity.
They never ask for money, unless for donations to keep the server running.
And rollbacks may never happen with EXPERIENCED coders/programmers (Look at the top 20s),
and they almost never go "poof" until Nexon/Wizet gets the patience to sue them.
Additionally, some private servers are actually, unaffected by laws.
Don't ask me how. =/

i want private servers to be back actually... cuz i usually try out the characters and see if i like them or not in the ps and go for that job in the real ms but now i quit ms cuz i dont have to motivation to go for that high lvl job